


Cacti

by HyperKey (Sylverstia)



Series: Chronological Order [34]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Whump, hurt comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 17:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18526696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylverstia/pseuds/HyperKey
Summary: At times, roles are reversed and the less experienced needs to save a life.And maybe its rewarded with a gift.





	Cacti

**Author's Note:**

> I dunno how this happened. replayed the hostage, got inspired, this happened. Whee.  
> Cory has a responsibility now.  
> Finally he isn't the one being hurt.

Chasing a suspect on an empty street wasn’t exactly hard, but when they had a head start and the human partners were slow, other measures head to be taken. Cory was keeping up with his speed.  There was no doubt that the RK900 could have run faster, even.

Both sides of the road were littered with houses that had dark alleys. A good place to hide or to take a short cut.

“We’re splitting up. And cut him off.” Connor informed the younger android, knowing that Cory would need some sort of push in the right direction before he could act on his own.

It was an issue they were both aware of and trying to avoid as much as possible.

“You take the right side.” Connor instructed, and darted to the left.

Gavin saw the two androids suddenly split into different directions and decided to keep going straight down the road. One of the androids would speed up significantly now and intercept the man. He silently rooted for Cory.

Hank had been left behind a minute ago, the Lieutenant way too out of shape to keep up with them.

Gavin was surprised he even lasted as long as he did.

Seconds later he saw both androids tackle the suspect. It should have been over then, but the man put up a fight and pulled his gun.

Gavin only saw silhouettes from the distance, but he heard the shot clearly, saw the white flash of the muzzle and one of the two figures went down.

Not in a heap. No. The person was strangely frozen in an awkward kneeling position.

Even as Gavin willed hos legs to speed up, he could make out a red LED. He couldn’t tell who of the two androids had gotten hit, but he was already calling it in, breath coming in short gasps as he put his body to the limit. His legs were already burning, lungs protesting. He wasn’t out of shape, but he had a point where he got tired too.

When the silhouettes turned into people, Gavin cursed loudly. The suspect had been knocked unconscious, cuffed to a lamp post, gun out of reach.

Connor was the one that had gotten hit. He was sitting on the ground, frozen, LED blinking slow and red. It finished a quarter of a round, faded, did the next quarter, continued. Gavin felt a stab of concern fill his chest.

Blood was dripping from Connors mouth and nose, eyes wide in shock, completely frozen too. “Fuck!” Gavin shouted into the silent street.

He walked the last few steps, his legs feeling like pudding when he finally stopped and tried to think of what to do.

Cory was already at Connor’s side. Hands white to interface, he ripped the android’s clothes apart, revealed the bullet wound to the android’s chest and back. He tipped the stiff body to the side, into the cold and damp street. He opened the chest panel, pried it apart, really as it was bent out of shape and reached in.

Gavin turned his gaze away when all he saw was blue blood.

“Technician!” Cory barked at Gavin, LED red to match Connors.

“Already called. Stay calm. What do we do?”

“Need to stabilize his thirium flow.” Cory hissed. His staticky voice betrayed his stressed system.

Gavin nodded, ready to do whatever he had to, so that Hank would not try to shoot his head off later. Without a word, Cory just grabbed his hands, now slick with thirium and pulled it closer.

“Hold this.”

“Hold-“ Gavin echoed, but quickly shut up when he felt the steady blood flow gushing over his hands. He did as instructed, unsure what he was doing but if Cory deemed it the right thing, he trusted his judgement.

His stomach definitely turned when he realized that the erratic vibration he now felt, was the thirium pump of the android struggling to keep functioning.

“What are you doing?” He asked when Cory tossed his jacket aside and ripped his black shirt in a frantic attempt to get his arms free of the garment.

“He lost too much thirium. He will shut down in the next two minutes if nothing is done.” Cory’s voice was just a garbled mess of static now, and Gavin had trouble understanding him. It took too long to register what the android was planning and when he finally realized, Cory had already pried a panel off his arm and did the same to one of Connor’s arms.

Gavin finally understood when Cory snapped a thirium line in his arm, and ripped the tube to connect it to another broken line in Connors arm.

“…You sure that’s gonna work?”

Cory didn’t move, only stared at what he was doing, making sure to keep both lines connected. “It’s a crude solution, but it will work until help arrives.”

“Chances of you bleeding out?”

“Low, if the technician is here within the next ten minutes.”

Gavin only nodded, gaze wandering back to what he was doing, still unsure what it was exactly, and unsure if he wanted to know it.

A cold shiver raced down his spine when he felt the thirium pump of the android stutter. It continued its erratic beating, but as the initial surprise was wearing off, Gavin felt sick.  That was probably the most involved he had ever been in saving an android’s life and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to repeat that.

A few minutes they didn’t say anything and Gavin tried hard not to look at all the blood. He had long since stopped differentiating between blue and red blood. Seeing either was bad. Didn’t matter what color it was, and by now blue blood could turn his stomach as badly as red blood had always done.

Cory sagged into him and he needed to push his weight against the android to keep his own balance. “Don’t shut down on me.”

“I am shutting down unnecessary functions to keep both of us functioning.” Cory explained. “I have extended his timer to seven minutes. I have thirteen left.”

Gavin only nodded, too afraid to move anything else. “Fuck what’s taking them so long…”

He realized he was shaking, hands cold, despite the warm thirium still spilling over them. He wanted this to be over soon.

Connor finally gave a jolt and a sound akin to a whimper reached Gavin’s ears. “Don’t fucking move, tin can.” He snarled. “If this comes off, you’re dead.”

Connor gave a soft nod, something that could have been an involuntary motion. The detective couldn’t tell and barely cared when he heard people approach and sirens in the distance.

A suitcase and a satchel were settled down and a bottle of thirium pushing into Cory’s hands. Gavin then finally listed his gaze to look into Cindy’s eyes. Her lips were a thin line as she assessed the damage and dug through her suitcase. Ryan had already used the broken thirium line in Connors Arm to attach a bag of thirium to and now fussed over repairing the damaged line in Cory’s arm.

Cindy attached a cable to Connor’s LED and gazed at the data flittering across her tablet. “…You, my friend, are fucking lucky.” She hissed under her breath, then looked at Gavin. “This is going to be a mutual effort, Detective. You’re holding a vital thirium line together, and if you let go of it, he’ll bleed out in a few minutes.”

Gavin tried not to shiver. “…Fuck.”

Cindy only nodded. Ryan slowly coaxed Cory away so she could access the downed android, and calmly gathered her tools and carefully set to work. Whatever she had picked out looked like tape and Gavin wasn’t even going to question at that point.

Several minutes passed as she fussed around tools, before she finally seemed ready to repair the damage.

“Don’t let go.” She warned Gavin and snaked one hand in between both of his. “Ryan, call the nearest facility, get them ready for this.” Cindy said silently as she grabbed the tape with her other hand and wrapped it around the damage.

When Gavin was finally allowed to let go, he needed two tries to open his cramped-up hands and only slowly backed away. He wiped the thirium on his stained pants and shook his head at how absurd the whole situation was.

Cory was sitting on the ground, next to Ryan, still holding the bottle of thirium. His arm showed no sign of the damage, and only the ripped sleeve gave away what he had done. His LED was still red, gaze pinned on Connor, unmoving.

“Anything we can do?” Gavin asked eventually.

Cindy shook her head. “You’ve done all you could.”

“He gonna be okay?”

Cindy grimaced and ran a hand through Connor’s hair. “If that line holds until I can replace it, yeah.”

From the corner of his eye Gavin saw Cory tense and slowly he stood, walked over to his partner and put an arm around him. “I’m calling Hank. Any address?”

Ryan quickly showed him the address of the facility on his phone and helped Cindy pack up. Not much later they were both gone with Connor and Gavin couldn’t find it in him to get up to go back to the precinct.

He had called Hank and the man had cursed up a storm, screamed at him and then just hung up. Gavin hoped that Hank didn’t get into a car crash as he drove over to the facility.

There was still thirium on his hands, fading but still present and he had no doubt that Cory could still see it.

When the both got up to walk back to the car and file the report, Cory just stumbled alongside him, barely seeming to notice the path in front of him.

“System?” Gavin asked quietly when the android stopped and pressed his hands over his eyes.

The frantic nod had the detective curse silently and put a hand on his partner’s back. He guided him to the car and helped him inside, then watched him fall apart. Cory curled up; hands buried in his hair as he tried to force his emotions back under control.

Gavin leaned into the car and pulled Cory close, held him tight. “Fuck.” He hissed. “Fuck this, fuck these bastards.”

Cory only nodded and leaned into the human; head pressed against his chest.

They eventually made it back to the precinct, news already gotten around. It was kind of silent, eyes on them as if they could still see the thirium stains on Gavin’s hands and clothes. Fowler decided not to yell when he stepped out of the office, but gestured for them to talk to him.

He could sense that Cory didn’t want to speak to Fowler, but followed along anyway.

“Take the day off. Both of you.” Fowler muttered after they had stepped into the office. “Write the report when you’re ready. Any news yet?”

Cory’s face remained stone cold as he shook his head. Fowler sighed and dismissed them then, and Gavin headed straight for the locker room, gesturing for Cory to follow him. The android did frown, but wasn’t asking any questions and when Gavin opened his locked and reached inside, the android looked somewhat curious.

“…Been six months since you got assigned to me, I guess.” Gavin muttered and handed him a small paper bag. “wanted to give this to you tomorrow but fuck it… after today…”

Cory carefully reached into the paper bag and revealed a small cactus in a pot. “…This- is for me?”

Gavin grimaced. “Hey you’re a prick, so …“ He trailed off when Cory bit his lips and quickly sat the cactus onto a bench to wipe his eyes.

“…Are you fucking crying over a cactus?”

“I don’t- understand-“ Cory tried, but the words were drowned in static.

Gavin sighed. “You keep staring at my plants as if you want to eat them… and you’re a prick. And… it doesn’t need much water.”

“Stop crying, Jesus…” Gavin tried to hide a chuckle as he pulled his partner into a hug. He ran his hands over the android’s back and kissed his neck.

“I am _trying_ to stop it-“ he tensed for a second before he sagged against Gavin. “Connor will be okay. Cindy just texted me.”

Gavin only nodded, squeezed him tight for a moment and sighed into his shirt. “You saved him. Be happy about that.”

“Technically you did-“

“Shut up. I only did what you told me to do. Let’s get the fuck home.”

Cory nodded eagerly, picked up the cactus with great care and followed Gavin out of the precinct.

He was starting to wish for a vacation, wondered if androids were allowed to even be on vacation. Was it frowned upon?

“We should visit Connor.” He suggested when Gavin unlocked his car.

“…Fuck no. Go alone. Seen the tin can enough today.”

“I would like if you came with me.”

Gavin glared at him. “In bed?”

“Gavin this is serious.”

“I am being serious too.”

Cory closed the car door and carefully cradled the cactus in his hands. “Very well, I will visit him by myself.”

“Good. Try not to get run over on your way over there.”

“If you came with me, you could make sure nothing happens to me.”

Gavin threw his hands up in exasperation. “Fine! But leave the cactus at home!”


End file.
